However, the dog with monocle and top hat may not approve of finger lickin'.

"I just loved the (embossed tin) walls when I saw the pictures on the website," said Eric Pearson as he talked about how an Ohio family came to open a place in Newton, far from the small seafood restaurants of the Atlantic coast or the "crab shacks" that dot the highways of the Cajun south.

The walls, on which hang the cow and dog pictures, are white-painted, pressed tin and now are home to Crawdaddy's at 9 Moran St.

"It reminded me of what I imagined a crawfish restaurant would look like," he said as he sat for an interview. "Elegant and fun."

But how does a boy from Ohio fall in love with crawfish, anyway?

That story involves a family line of bootleggers and a father who, on his "traveling trips to sell," often returned home with crawfish.

"He loved the South and I came to love crawfish," Pearson said. "I just couldn't get enough."

OK, that explains the love of crawfish, which Eric passed down to hs own son, Eli, who is co-owner and manager of Crawdaddy's. But how does that get to Newton?

The Pearson family has gone "legit" with the booze business and built a distillery in Pohatcong, Warren County.

As that building project was nearing its opening, Eric got to dreaming about opening his own crawfish restaurant so began looking at websites with commercial spaces for rent and up popped the pictures of the tin walls.

A couple of phone calls, Health Department and building permits, some elbow grease with other family members and the location was ready for customers.

Decor is simple -- several wooden picnic tables. "We did stain them," offered Eric with a smile. And some of the tables are covered with bright red-and-white checked tablecloths.

The menu, at this point, is relatively simple with crawfish imported from Louisiana, and lobster which the Pearsons drive to Maine to personally select.

There is corn on the cob and fresh, homemade clam chowder and chicken noodle soup.

Chicken, either in wing form, or as a salad, is also on the menu.

Soon to come pending final county Health Department approval, he said, is a smoker (the approval is whether to allow the smoker outside or inside with appropriate ventilation) from which will come ribs and brisket. Smoked wings will come from another vendor.

He said he expects the department's answer within a week.

"Even if we have to put it inside, it's not much of a bother," he said. "We're all handy."

Open for less than a month, Pearson said, "We've been well-received here," noting there is a brisk take-out trade.

And, he had another story about running out of food. "We've had to quadruple our orders," he said with a broad smile.

"Now, instead of ordering twenty-five-hundred pounds of crawfish at a time, we're ordering five thousand," he explained.

And, it's likely the restaurant will be adding a couple of clam dishes to the menu, "since we're going to Maine already."

And, as if the food, service and atmosphere aren't enough, Pearson said Crawdaddy's is likely to be entered into the Guinness World Record book next month in two categories.

On March 15, Pearson will try to set the record for quickest time to eat a five-pound serving of crawfish.

Details of the event will be posted on the restaurant's Facebook page shortly.

Pearson said it's not a problem if someone on your party doesn't like lobster or crawfish.

"I can make you a chicken dish on the spot," he said.

Crayfish, also known as crawfish, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, mudbugs or yabbies, have become an important commercial crop in Louisiana, where they have been a staple of the Cajun diet for centuries.

As a couple of nicknames imply, they are small versions of the Maine lobster, but live in freshwater.

"And like lobster was once something fed only to prisoners, both have now gained a reputation as being good food," he said.

As to the common complaint that it takes a lot of effort to get to the tasty parts of either lobster or crawfish, Pearson said, "Well, isn't it true that the best things take work?"

Oh, and one more thing: Pearson said he wasn't aware until just recently of the annual Crawfish festival held at the fairgrounds in Augusta.

But, he noted, someone has already asked him if he'd like to be a vendor.